


survivors squad

by zeitgeistofnow



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: MINKOWSKI IS STILL BUTCH, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Recovery, casual reminder that while it's not mentioned in this fic, i wrote this so long ago, right after the finale i think, thanks for coming to my ted talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 09:46:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20289430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeitgeistofnow/pseuds/zeitgeistofnow
Summary: on the long way home, before they figure out the cryo-freeze, before they’re ready for cryo, lovelace jokingly calls the uraina the ‘survivors ship’- half jokingly, they’re all painfully aware that they survived- and it sticks. the survivors squad on the survivor ship, dealing with survivors guilt.but at least they survived, you know?





	survivors squad

on the long way home, before they figure out the cryo-freeze, before they’re ready for cryo, lovelace jokingly calls the uraina the ‘survivors ship’- half jokingly, they’re all painfully aware that they survived- and it sticks. the survivors squad on the survivor ship, dealing with survivors guilt.

everyone stays at dominks house the first few nights: he had remarried, his first wife was, for all intents and purposes, dead. she had been dead for three, four years. his new wife is nice and nothing like minkowski, and they let them sleep in the basement. jacobi watches dominiks measly collection of star wars movies with doug, and lovelace tinkers with hera, figuring out what they could do with her. minkowski’s upstairs, talking with her husband about what to do next. making a plan.

there’s a planner in every crew, the one who thought ‘what can we do next’, while the others screwed around with ais and bombs and humans fucking emotions.

minkowski is a good planner- she thinks things out, puts them together, tells people what’s happening as soon as she knows it, and that’s what she does when she finally comes down, just as the man formerly known as anakin skywalker fights his last battle.

“we’re going to stay with my hus- with dominik for the next week or so while we figure out what to do next.”

doug rolls over on the couch, stretching out and then curling back into a ball. jacobi watches him, slightly amused- almost amused. jacobi isn’t sure he can ever be properly amused again. 

“sounds good, commander,” lovelace says, looking up from dominiks computer.

minkowski sighs and starts to say something, then stops. “don’t use my title. i don’t want to hear it again.”

jacobi gets it, and lovelace does too. doug’s still asleep.

“it’s late,” lovelace says, then corrects herself. “early.”

jacobi looks out the window, at the ground- he had forgotten how basement windows work, how they’re tiny and show you the space where people’s feet go. there’s a lambs ear plant right outside the window.

minkowski yawns and falls onto the couch on the other side of doug, next to jacobi. “we used to have a pull-out,” she mumbles. 

“this might still be a pull-out,” jacobi offers, “but your communications- your doug is asleep on it.” 

the end credits start. “i wonder how carrie fisher is doing,” minkowski muses. 

jacobi shrugs. “it’s two in the morning and i’m finally on earth. i can’t make myself care about celebrities.”

minkowski yawns and nods, stretching out her legs. “oh, god.” she leans against jacobi, resting an arm on doug’s head. jacobi stiffens- he’s not used to just… casual contact. not since Maxwell. he misses Maxwell. he misses Them. their unit, how he felt like part of something. 

minkowski sits up and glances at him. she doesn’t say anything: jacobi’s always felt it’s awkward to ask if you be near someone, but jacobi shrugs and smiles- not really. not a smile to convey happiness, but to convey a general feeling of  _ ‘i still miss Them and They’re the only people i’ve been close to in who knows how long and They’re gone, so i just… need some adjustment time’. _ the shrug, jacobi hopes, conveys that  _ ‘but hey it’s okay if you need a pillow i’m a hell of a lot taller than you and an  _ excellent  _ pillow’.  _

minkowski yawns again and nods at jacobi:  _ ‘yeah it’s cool you need adjustment we all do, and thanks for the offer my ex-husband seems to have gotten rid of every single damn pillow down here’.  _ she rests her head on his lap with her legs looped over the armrest and she sleeps silently, breathing softly. Maxwell and Kepler both snored.

lovelace taps out keys for another hour or so and jacobi stays up for that hour, listening to her tap out keys, talking to someone that’s trapped in a flash drive. jacobi spent half of his and Maxwell’s emergency funds on that one damn giant flash drive, but it wasn’t like him and Maxwell were going to use the money. Maxwell would have wanted it to be used for hera- She liked hera.

lovelace taps a key for the final time and turns off the computer, turning to look at jacobi. 

“it’s three in the morning,” she says softly.

jacobi shrugs. “i’ve stayed up later.”

“aren’t you exhausted?”

“i don’t really care if i am.” that’s stupid, jacobi  _ should  _ care. lovelace should tell him that it’s stupid- not that it will help, but. it’ll show that they’re capable of making a human connection, and- ha. bad choice of words. 

but lovelace doesn’t. she just shrugs. “i don’t either, but they do.” she sweeps a hand- too grand a gesture for three in morning. jacobi glances down at doug and minkowski.

jacobi doesn’t know if he cares that they care. they shouldn’t- they shouldn’t care about him, he doesn’t deserve ‘care’. he deserves bandaids over stab wounds and thousands of paper cuts that no one cares about.

but lovelace it looking at him expectantly, so he sighs. “are you going to sleep too?”

“probably.” lovelace doesn’t yawn, but her eyelids flutter closed before flying open again. “it’s been a long day.”

“true.”

lovelace tosses hera’s flash drive onto the arm of the couch before ambling over and tucking herself between jacobi and doug, resting doug’s feet on her lap. jacobi leans on her shoulder and they fall asleep like that. 

the survivors squad, squished onto a couch in the basement. 

the morning is bright, with sunlight streaming through the tiny windows. a beam of sunlight finds its place on doug’s face, and he blinks as he sits up. “wha? where are we?”

“you kick in your sleep,” jacobi says, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “lovelace was hit in the stomach quite a few times.”

doug grumbles softly at this. he pulls himself into a sitting position, looking around. “how much of the movie did i miss?”

“about half of the last one in the trilogy.”

doug groans. “damn.”

jacobi shrugs. “you can watch the rest later-”

“but i want to know it  _ now.”  _ doug scowls. “i  _ should  _ know it.”

jacobi shouldn’t be doing this. he doesn’t know enough- he’s not nice enough to do this for doug.

“you don’t need to know everything,” he says anyway, “no one knows everything, and you don’t have to be who you were before.”

jacobi don’t want to say it-  _ won’t  _ say it, but he’s  _ almost  _ glad doug lost his memory. it levels the playing field and gives jacobi a second chance.

doug opens his mouth to say something, but minkowski shifts and blinks. “good morning,” she murmurs. “i’m still getting used to waking up without…” she trails off and mimes an explosion. “haven’t really had a weekend in years.”

“well, there’s no time in space,” doug points out. “no weekends, either.”

minkowski nods, and all three of them look at lovelace, snoring gently on jacobi’s shoulder. doug pokes her with his toe. “isabel?”

“lambert,” lovelace responds, not opening her eyes. “the engines are-” she yawns. “the engines are- lambert- damn.” she sits up, looking at the others. “damn,” she repeats. “sorry... doug.”

doug shrugs. “the engines seem fine.”

lovelace shakes her head. “fuck,” she says, like someone else might say  _ good morning.  _ she looks up. “i’m going to work on hera some more, unless you need my help.”

minkowski shrugs. “you’ll only be a few feet away, i think we’ll be fine.”

lovelace nods and disentangels herself from the couch, slipping into the seat at the computer. the tapping resumes, and jacobi’s left staring at minkowski and doug. 

minkowski closes her eyes. jacobi’s not sure if she’s thinking, or taking a mini nap, and he’s too afraid to ask. Kepler would do the same thing, sometimes during missions. He always liked theatrics. it got annoying.

“we need somewhere to live,” minkowski says finally. “we don’t want to overstay our welcome.”

doug rubs the back of his neck. “and, ah. squeezing onto a couch all together is going to give me a  _ terrific  _ crick in the neck after a little while.”

“that too.” minkowski takes out her phone: dominik had a lot of her stuff stashed in a box in the attic, including her old phone. it’s a blackberry with a cracked screen. jacobi winces.

minkowski sees him wincing. “shut up. do you have a better phone?”

“yeah, but it’s at home.” back at jacobi and Maxwell’s old apartment. their house, which was equipped for ais, because of course it was,  _ Maxwell  _ lives- lived- in it. 

minkowski realizes this too, because she raises an eyebrow. “where’s home?

jacobi stuffs a hand in the pockets of the pants he’s wearing. they’re borrowed from dominik. “the house me and Maxwell shared. it’s… three bedrooms, i think. there’s like seventeen drones in it, and the lightbulb in the bathroom is broken. it’s on the edge of the city.” close enough to get places, but far enough no one cared about jacobi’s explosions. 

minkowski leans forward. “would the…” she gestures:  _ you know,  _ “be too much to live there, or would it be okay?”

jacobi doesn’t know if he likes that she’s asking. it means she cares about him, or is at least pretending to. “no,” he says slowly-  _ He  _ talked slowly, he thinks, and speeds up his tone- “i think it’d be fine.”

minkowski hums for a moment, then nods.

doug dubs it ‘the survivors shack’ before he even sets foot inside. it’s not in the best shape, jacobi has to admit, neither him nor Alana ever cleaned, so it’s a mess, and the pile of dishes in the sink might qualify as a ecosystem by now. 

lovelace claims the biggest bedroom: the one that used to be unused, mostly. it was officially the guest bedroom, but the only guest that ever stayed over was Kepler, and He slept in jacobi’s room. 

doug takes the second biggest: Maxwell’s, with hera in the monitor in the closet.

minkowski and jacobi share the last one: that used to jacobi’s. still is. they buy an extra bed, a drone, a speaker, and a roomba from ikea. jacobi and doug assemble the bed while minkowski and lovelace puzzle through attaching hera to the other things. they get the speakers done first- one in every room but the bathroom, and hera’s voice interrupts doug and jacobi’s tense discussion on whether the next step involves the headboard or the feet, and where the hell did that screw go-

“hello, guys.” it’s still crackly, but better than before: they were expensive speakers. 

doug’s head flies up. “hera!”

“doug?” there’s a pause. “i can’t  _ see  _ anything yet. minkowski just told me you guys were in this room. i can’t really…” she trail off. “hear anything yet, either. it’s odd. i don’t like it. wait-”

there’s a sound from the speaker that jacobi can old describe as ‘beeeeyooooop’ and a drone flies through the door, loping around lovelace’s head as she stands in the doorway. “ladies, gentlemen, demolitions experts, meet the new hera.”

jacobi stands up to give lovelace a high five. “you guys want to help clean a bit?” he asks.

lovelace smirks. “I was hoping you’d ask that.” she looks at the drone. “hey hera, can you get your other half in here? the floor’s looking disgusting.”

“yessir, isabel,” hera says, and the roomba they bought skitters in, covered in sharpie. jacobi peers down at the ink.  _ ‘hera!!’ _ , it says, in block letters.

jacobi claps slowly. “i like it,” he says, and lovelace smiles. “but seriously,” he adds, “the kitchen is disgusting.”

“your  _ face  _ is disgusting,” lovelace shoots back. hera chuckles and jacobi throws a screw at the drone, which darts out of the way.

“why do you have  _ pickled grapes?”  _ lovelace holds up the jar, frowning. 

“they might not be grapes. or pickled.” there’s mold covering whatever was once in there, so it could honestly be anything.

“the label says-”

jacobi shudders. “just throw it away.”

lovelace peers into the fridge. “everything in here is gross, jacobi.”

“yeah, it’s been sitting there for a few years-”

“no, i mean.” lovelace takes out another jar. “escargot?”

“Kepler had expensive tastes.”

lovelace raises an eyebrow. “speaking of which, did He keep his whiskey here?”

jacobi shakes his head. “nah. didn’t trust us with it.”

“He trusted you with His life, but not His whiskey?”

jacobi sighs and leans against the island table. “He was complicated.”

lovelace rolls her eyes. “i’d say.”

they spend a few hours throwing stuff away before lovelace wipes her brow and washes her hands. “let’s get some pizza.”

jacobi tosses her her phone: they haven’t gone to get her stuff yet, it’s at her mom’s old house, and they want to clear out the house before getting more stuff. they’re all sharing clothes for now. it’s odd seeing lovelace in Kepler’s old shirts.

lovelace orders for everyone: she doesn’t ask what everyone wants, that would seem a bit odd. not something you ask someone you were on a spaceship with for a few years. she gets pineapple on half the pizza and jacobi holds up a hand. “wait,  _ pineapple?” _

lovelace shushes him and finished ordering. “doug wants pineapple on his pizza.”

“that’s so…” jacobi trails off. “gross.”

lovelace points to the garbage. “you had pickles grapes in your fridge.”

“well, yeah, but i wasn’t the one that bought them.” jacobi’s not sure who bought them. it was never a certainty with Them.

they’re halfway finished with the pizza when lovelace flips closed the box. doug mumbles protests and takes another bite of the slice he’s eating.

lovelace clears her throat. “minkowski has something to say.”

minkowski looks around the table. jacobi does too. having the four of them at the table is odd. he’s used to it being Kepler and Maxwell and him. not eating pizza, though. Kepler couldn’t stand pizza. They’d get chinese takeout or wraps from the vegan restaurant down the street. 

“we need to talk, guys.”

“i don’t think we do,” doug says through a mouthful of pizza. “i think we’re fine avoiding subjects.”

“yeah,” jacobi agrees. he knows where this is going and wants to at least postpone it.

“isabel,” minkowski says slowly, “you’re still talking to lambert in your sleep.”

“Is this some kind of fucking  _ intervention-”  _ jacobi starts to interupt. doug shushes him.

lovelace blinks. she probably didn’t expect this to be turned on her. “i did that when we were still on the hephaestus, too,” she protests. “you didn’t care then.”

“there wasn’t time to care then,” minkowski says. “and jacobi, i can  _ hear  _ you capitalizing Kepler and Maxwell’s names.”

“They deserve it.”

“don’t we?”

jacobi stares at minkowski. “i don’t know. have i known  _ you  _ for seven years? have i-”

“They’re dead, jacobi.”

“all the more reason!” jacobi swallows. “They’re- were- my friends.”

minkowski stares back. “were They?”

jacobi wants to storm away, but he’s starving, so he settles for angrily taking a bite of pizza and glaring at minkowski.

minkowski sighs and turns to doug. “doug…”

doug holds up a hand, still chewing. “i know, it’s fine.” 

“it’s not fine. i’m sorry.”

doug blinks and swallows. “you’re what?”

“i know you feel like you have to-” minkowski shakes her head. “i don’t know. but you don’t have to be ‘communications officer doug eiffel’. you can just be… you.” she chokes out a laugh. “or not. you can do whatever.” she looks up at jacobi. “you don’t have to let us stay here, jacobi.”

jacobi doesn’t say anything. he doesn't know if he wants them to stay, or if he wants them to go far away and leave him to his ghosts.

minkowski laughs again, but it doesn't really sound like a laugh. “just… tell us when you’ve decided. we wouldn’t want to overstay our welcome.”

doug kisses him three nights later, while lovelace is wandering the halls with hera. after, they sit in Kepler’s room- doug’s room- and talk about… nothing. jacobi talks about carrie fisher’s death, and how he shouldn’t care that much, but he cares more about her dying than he does about hilbert, and doug- this doug- doesn’t really know hilbert.

but this doug nods sympathetically, and jacobi can’t fucking stand it. he stands up- it’s an attic room and his head almost touches the ceiling. 

“why are you being sympathetic? why are you staying here? you have enough fucking money between the three of you that you could,” he waves his hands, feeling stupid, “go somewhere. somewhere nice and green and leave me to everything i deserve.” leave me to Them, and Their ghosts and thoughts about how She used to play mario cart with me and how He would write letters to us when He went away, which wasn’t often, but it was often enough.

“we don’t want to leave you,” doug says. he says it like it’s an explanation, but it’s not, really. “we like you, and you don’t deserve to wallow in thoughts about Kepler.” for a second, jacobi feels furious with doug-  _ you don’t know what you’re talking about you forgot you got to get off easy don’t you  _ dare  _ lecture me about Them, don’t you- _

jacobi sits back down. “don’t i? i was the one who was- was i don’t know. the one who decided to know Him, don’t i deserve to have to be the one to mourn Him now that he’s gone? don’t i fucking owe it to Him?”

doug laughs, almost. “you don’t owe Him anything. i don’t remember him, but from everything the others have said…” he trails off. “you don’t owe Him your regret.”

“i owe Him my life.”

doug shakes his head. “you don’t owe anyone anything.”

jacobi scowls. he knows this conversation is going to come back to haunt him, that he’s going to have to think about this before he goes to sleep, but right now- “kiss me again?”

doug looks confused, and jacobi tried to retreat, but,

“yeah, sounds good,” doug says, a tiny smile replacing his frown, and he puts a hand on the back of jacobi’s neck and pulls his closer. jacobi thinks that doug knows that he’s using him to distract himself, but it’s not that bad if the other person is aware of it, right? it means they’ve consented. 

and maybe it works. maybe doug’s shy smiles and less shy smirks and bad jokes get to jacobi, make him feel a bit better.

it’s hard to get over Them, especially in this house, but kepler stops haunting jacobi’s dreams. Maxwell’s still there, but She’s nicer. She should still be here. She fucking deserves-

doug’s bed is the biggest in the house- a king sized, as opposed to the twin beds in lovelace and jacobi’s room, and the full sized in minkowski’s. they all end of sleeping in doug’s room- no one’s sure of why, just one night they all came in- to talk about something. jobs, maybe. therapy, doug’s hope of getting a dog- something, and they never left for the night.

it’s better sleeping next to someone, or three people, as the case may be. doug still kicks in his sleep, which ends up being  _ really annoying  _ when he’s sandwiched between minkowski and jacobi. lovelace falls off the bed a few times before they figure stuff out, and jacobi has to hug doug so that he doesn’t fall off too. 

minkowski comes to him one night, when jacobi’s sitting on the kitchen counter at two in the morning, counting the poppy seeds on the bread lovelace bought yesterday. hera buzzes after minkowski. 

minkowski and jacobi are both in their pajamas: minkowski’s are nice, silk and probably expensive. jacobi’s wearing one of kepler’s old shirts and a pair of shorts. 

“you should stop wearing his shirts,” minkowski says, hopping onto the table across from him. “distance yourself.”

“he’s everywhere in this house,” jacobi counters, “and you’re not saying anything when lovelace wears his shirts.”

“what about Her?”

jacobi winces.

hera alights next to jacobi and her voice comes from the speaker attached to the drone. “i miss Her too,” she says. jacobi feels ganged up upon and he tries to convey this to minkowski, glaring as scathingly as he can.

“but She’s gone,” hera continues. “and i know i wasn’t as close to Her as you are, but you need to let go of Her.”

“ _ She  _ deserves to be remembered.” jacobi dares them to tell him not to mourn her.

“you don’t have to let go of Her completely,” minkowski says, “but you can’t prioritize Her over… other people, who are here now.”

jacobi doesn’t say anything.

“She wouldn’t want you to wallow,” hera says. jacobi still doesn’t say anything, but he remembers.

_ ‘when I’m gone,’ Maxwell says, ‘if I die, then I want you to-’ _

_ ‘hold it,’ jacobi says, ‘ ‘if’ ?‘ _

_ ‘yes,  _ if _ .’ Maxwell laughs, ‘if I’m gone, I want you and kepler to move on. or whatever. if I die you two should retire and live out your happily ever after.’ _

_ jacobi grins. ‘You think we’re fit for happily ever after?’ _

_ ‘i think you deserve it,’ she says, and jacobi cycles through possible responses. _

_ he settles on some inane, witty quip, and maxwell laughs again. _

“i don’t think she thought she was going to die,” jacobi says. 

“no one really does.” minkowski sounds grim. “doesn’t stop them from dying.”

they sit there in silence, and maxwell’s ghost drifts out the window, maybe to plague someone else? her family? maybe to sleep. maxwell never got enough sleep. 

the second night sleeping next to each other was maybe a week later, when they all just showed up in dougs room, an unspoken agreement after finishing watching  _ bill and ted’s excellent adventure  _ for the third time. 

it was the first time jacobi had seen lovelace and doug in pajamas. lovelace, as a person, doesn’t fit into the idea of pajamas- she’s the kind of person that seems made for flannel and combat boots and really shouldn’t be seen in anything else, so seeing her in a sports bra and boxer shorts was probably the strangest thing that’s happened to jacobi. doug sleeps in a circulating collection of star wars shirts, and later jacobi and lovelace discus making a chart of when he wears which, just to see if it’s actually in an order, but they decide that that would take too long, and there are better things to do.

jacobi sleeps better than he usually does- kepler and maxwell are gone from his dreams, and he almost wishes they weren’t, because when they- especially  _ he _ \- is gone, jacobi has a conscience- well, more of a conscience. it’s hilbert plaguing his dreams now- or whoever he was. 

_ i don’t even care about him. he was a monster,  _ he argues with himself.

_ you were a monster too,  _ his subconscious argues back. it doesn’t totally make sense, but it shuts him up _ .  _

it’s a few weeks of sleeping next to each other before lovelace wakes them up in the middle of night with a muttered  _ ‘hui, hui, what are you  _ doing’ and a few pointed kicks to minkowski’s knees. jacobi wakes up first, but he’s on the other side of the bed and he doesn’t know what to do. nightmares weren’t customary in the si-5. he supposes they were inevitable with the people he hangs around now, but he hadn’t planned for it.

minkowski wakes up next, shooting to attention. jacobi looks at her. he doesn’t like how helpless he feels, but he shouldn’t be the one to help her, he didn’t earn that. 

she frowns at him, but turns to lovelace. “isabel. isabel, you’re dreaming. lovelace.”

lovelace murmurs in her sleep, but doesn’t wake up, and minkowski sighs. “captain,” she whispers, her voice lost somewhere between soft and commanding, “you need to wake up.”

lovelace gasps herself awake, blinking. “minkowski, i’m-”

“you’re not fine.” it’s jacobi that says that, and it surprises everyone, even himself. that’s minkowski’s line. 

doug’s asleep, though, so there’s no one to crack that joke. there’s a soft  _ rrring  _ as hera sneaks in through the gap under the door.

“you’re one to talk,  _ mr. jacobi.”  _ lovelace drawls. it’s a good imitation, jacobi supposes.

jacobi’s not sure what he’s supposed to say now. 

lovelace blinks at herself. “sorry,” she mutters. “but you’re not…” she waves a hand. 

“this isn’t about me.” jacobi has no illusions that saying this will distract from anything, but it’s always worth a try. 

“then who’s it about?” minkowski looks conflicted, like she can’t decide if she should be sad, or upset, or the commander. 

“don’t try to make this about me.” jacobi says it a bit louder then he meant, and doug wakes up, rubbing his eyes and propping himself up against the headboard.

“guys,” he says slowly, “do you have to argue at three in the morning?”

hera sounds awkward. “t-they have to at some point. nothing stopping them from doing it now.”

“except their boyfriend’s  _ sleep schedule.”  _ doug rolls back over and covers his head with a pillow.

jacobi blinks at lovelace. 

“what did he say?”  _ boyfriend?  _

lovelace and minkowski shrug, glancing at each other and then back at jacobi. 

“i don’t know,” hera says finally.

doug mumbles something through the pillow, and lovelace grabs it off his head. “what?”

he props himself up again. “we’re literally sleeping in the same bed, you guys.”

there’s a moment of silence, and minkowski nods.

“we are.”

jacobi doesn’t see where this is going. “that doesn’t mean anything? me and kepler-”  _ wrong example-  _ “me and maxwell used to share a bed-”

doug stares at jacobi, then sighs and nuzzles his shoulder.

“that’s not an answer-”

doug yawns, ignoring jacobi. “i love you guys. like, i know i’m not the same guy that i was, so you don’t have to return the sentiment, but you’re so nice.”

jacobi’s struck by the realization that he loves them too, really does. he’s still not sure what he’s supposed to say. “i love being back on earth,” he says finally, and lovelace looks at him funny.

“well, i love news apps,” she says.

“i love movie theater popcorn,” minkowski contributes.

“animal shelters are pretty cool,” doug says, his face dancing with an almost-laugh. 

“coffee.”

“emojis,” hera says, and projects the frog emoji on the ceiling. doug chuckles.

“that one noise that pigeons make when they see a cat.”

“trees.”

hera joins in after a while, cracking to life. “hackable public information.”

“apple stores.”

“smart politicians.”

“graveyards,” lovelace says. everyone falls silent. 

“they should have gotten buried.” doug doesn’t  know remember them, but he says it with such certainty, that he could be saying anything, and jacobi would agree with him. 

“i’m glad we didn’t  _ have  _ to bury you guys,” minkowski says, “it’s better to be the survivors squad than not survive.”

lovelace wraps an arm around minkowski’s shoulder. “and it’s better to be a ‘squad’ then just a survivor.”

jacobi doesn’t fare well in emotional situations he’s been so far removed from them for so long, that’s he’s not sure what to say, but… “yeah.” agreement usually works, and his other idea was to laugh and say something about how cheesy this whole conversation is. then leave and cry in the shower.

doug coughs, shifting so that he’s lying across the other three. “it’s three in the morning,” he reminds. 

lovelace yawns. “you should always confess volatile feelings when you’re exhausted. your filters are lessened.”

“still.” doug looks up at minkowski, like he still expects her to be the voice of reason. “three in the morning.”

minkowski hums. “i see your point, officer- doug. i love you too.” she says it almost-offhandedly. she’s trying to make it nonchalant, and the rest of them let her.

lovelace and jacobi don’t say anything, but maybe they don’t have to.

they slip back under the covers, nestling their heads next to doug and minkowski’s and entangling their legs and they fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> jacobi and lovelace are, in fact, gay!! and not attracted to people of the opposite sex!! and that's valid!! they're not in a romantic relationship with some of the others, therefore. minkowski and daniel are not in a romantic relationship, for example. this is a fairly complex polycule that i came up with before i knew what a polycule was and i've forgotten most of it but it exists. 
> 
> thanks for reading this!! comment and kudos if you liked it. :D


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